National Wiper Alliance, Inc.

National Wiper Alliance, Inc. is a leading non-wovens converter with the capability to produce wipers for stock and custom applications. NWA has been in business in the Asheville, NC area for over 15 years, and supplies national and international customers with wiping products and raw material. Our capabilities include slitting, folding, sheeting, perforating and inner folding, with focus on full product development, private labeling and full-service fulfillment.

NatureWorks LLC

NatureWorks LLC is a joint venture between Cargill and Teijin Limited of Japan. Dedicated to meeting the worlds needs today without compromising the earths ability to meet the needs of tomorrow, NatureWorks LLC is the first company to offer a family of commercially available low carbon footprint polymers derived from 100-percent annually renewable resources with cost and performance that compete with petroleum-based packaging materials and fibers. This biopolymer currently uses 65% less fossil fuel resources to produce, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80-90% compared to traditional petroleum-based polymers. The company applies its unique technology to the processing of natural plant sugars to create a proprietary polylactide biopolymer, NatureWorks which is then marketed globally as Ingeo.

North Carolina State University, The Nonwovens Institute

The Nonwovens Institute is the worlds first accredited academic program for the interdisciplinary study of engineered fabrics through an innovative partnership of industry, government, and academe. The institute was established in February 2007 to develop, educate, and train the next generation of industry professionals. The research arm of the institute is the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC). The Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) was founded in 1991 as a State-Industry University Cooperative Research Center from matching grants from the National Science Foundation, the State of North Carolina, and the Industry. |The Nonwovens Institute serves the nonwovens and affiliated industries through research, training, product development, and test-bed facilities. The state-of-the-art facilities include laboratories dedicated to fiber, fabric, and polymer characterization, spunbond and melt blown pilot lines with bicomponent fiber capability, carding, cross-lapping, needle punching, hydroentangling, thermal bonding, and spun bond/melt blown/carded web composite capability. Analytical facilities offer the ability to analyze and evaluate materials performance according to many industry specific standard test methods.